SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition: Detects and removes all kinds of spyware and malware

SUPERAntiSpyware is a highly effective malware and spyware detection & removal tool and a popular choice among its genre. The latest update of the program offers major improvements, including a redesigned interface and increased performance.

Installation & Requirements

The setup offers Express and Custom install modes. We’ve chosen the Custom install as always. The same installer can be used to configure the Professional version of the product, so users that purchased it have the possibility of entering a registration key. Since our review focuses on SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition, we left the code blank. The program will perform a few automated actions after the setup is complete (checking for updates, enabling automatic updates and submitting a system diagnostic), although you can deselect any of them.

After the installation is finished, SUPERAntiSpyware will offer users to start a free trial of the Professional version, which we skipped since the free one is under review. With support enabled for both 32 and 64-bit Windows operating systems, SUPERAntiSpyware can run on Windows 2000, XP Home/Professional, 2003, Server 2008, Vista, 7 and 8.

Interface

The simple UI comprises all the main features and options on its front page. To begin with, the big “Scan Your Computer” button can be used right away, with Quick Scan selected by default. However, the program offers multiple scan modes besides the default one, namely Complete Scan, Critical Point Scan, Custom Scan and even Rescue Scan (specific for highly infected systems).

The Quick Scan was fast in our case (around 4 and ½ minutes) and revealed a pile of tracking cookies. After the scan process is over, users will get to view all detected items and deselect any of them before removal. If you’re in a hurry, the fastest scan (~ 1 minute for us) is the Critical Point Scan, obviously because it scans only the sensitive areas of the system that get infected with malware most often.

The Complete Scan lasted a great deal longer (about 30 minutes) but it is recommended you use it every once in a while to make sure no threats managed to sneak into your system. Also, before launching the Complete Scan, users are offered several options to customize the process, such as choosing scan locations, setting CPU priority and enable archive scanning. More options available in the Scanning Preferences menu include ignoring files larger than 4 MB and non-executable files, scanning for tracking cookies, using Kernel Direct File Access/Direct Registry Access/Direct Disk Access and adding a Scan option in Explorer context menu. Users can also define trusted applications and known folders to be excluded from the scan.

Power users get the Custom Scan option to tinker with, since it offers customizations for almost every aspect of the scan, such as scan categories, locations and exclusions. Some features disabled in the free version are also present on the UI – real-time protection, scheduled scanning and automatic updates – these are all available only in the commercial version of the program. However, users can manually check for updates using the dedicated option.

SUPERAntiSpyware also offers management of quarantined items, scan logs, a repair menu to fix changes done by malware to system functions and a help shortcut that sends you to the online FAQ page.

Pros

– Straightforward interface offering all the scan modes and other important functions. Menus are dedicated to settings and preferences.
– Includes various scan modes such as quick scan, custom scan, critical point scan, complete scan and a rescue scan mode for severely infected systems.
– Multiple customization options are offered for scans.
– Users can deselect individual items to be skipped from threat removal process and set whitelists for applications and folders.
– Quarantine management and scan logs.
– Built-in collection of quick fixes for common changes done to the system by malware.

Cons

– The UI includes disabled features, available only in SUPERAntiSpyware Professional.

Conclusion

SUPERAntiSpyware does a good job at finding the whole array of modern day threats, but no tool is perfect. The best way to achieve a high level of antimalware protection is to regularly scan your system using two or more dedicated utilities, on top of using a traditional antivirus program.